Cancer Nanotechnology ( IF 4.5 ) Pub Date : 2020-08-06 , DOI: 10.1186/s12645-020-00063-7 Steven A Curley 1 , Frederick Currell 2 , Sunil Krishnan 3 , Zeljka Krpetic 4
The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the world we live in. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the infectious agent that causes the disease, is believed to have first appeared around December 2019, and in the months since then it has wreaked havoc on human communities, health systems, and economies worldwide. At the time of writing, it is estimated that more than 12 million individuals have been diagnosed with COVID-19, while approximately 550,000 deaths are attributed to the disease (COVID-19 Dashboard 2020). This has been a topic of constant and intense conversation, quite appropriately.
Equally so, there has been a shift in priorities from cancer prevention, treatment and research to COVID-19 prevention, treatment and research. As with rebalancing our investment portfolios during a financial crisis, we view the current landscape of shifting priorities as an opportunity to assess and equilibrate our twin interests in securing the quality and quantity of life of our patients and advancing new science with that of navigating the COVID-19 crisis responsibly and resolutely.
Extrapolating from data available from 2018 (Cancer fact sheet 2018), approximately 9 million patients have been newly diagnosed with a malignant disease in the first half of 2020. During that same timeframe, there have been no fewer than 4.75 million deaths from cancer throughout the world. At least 43 million people are currently living with a diagnosis of cancer and are undergoing a variety of treatments. Clearly, the impact from cancer far outstrips that of COVID-19, but does not garner the attention nor sense of panic among governments, businesses, the media, and communities. We do not dispute the importance of taking necessary and sometimes radical actions to prevent the spread of an infectious disease such as COVID-19, but we must remember as individuals involved in looking for better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat malignant diseases that the current impact of cancer on health worldwide far surpasses that of COVID-19.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and its incidence is increasing. As the size of the human population expands worldwide, the number of new cases and deaths from cancer annually continues to increase. Cancer can be caused by genetic or environmental factors, but also by infectious diseases, such as hepatitis B or C virus or human papilloma virus. Furthermore, the COVID-19 crisis has directly impacted the care of cancer patients. One of the co-authors of this editorial (SK) has recently submitted a paper looking at the effect of COVID-19 on cancer care worldwide (Venkatesulu et al. 2020). In this meta-analysis, patients who are being treated for cancer and who develop COVID-19 have a higher likelihood of intubation and mortality. The highest mortality risk was among patients with hematologic malignancies or lung cancer, but we must remember that many patients being treated for cancer are immunosuppressed to some degree owing to their disease-related poor nutritional and performance status, cytotoxic chemotherapy, radiation treatments, or major surgical procedures.
As editors of Cancer Nanotechnology, we are committed to supporting and publishing cutting-edge research using nanotechnology as a tool to diagnose and treat patients with malignant disease. As an interdisciplinary community at the interface of biological science and nanotechnology, we must also use our resources and knowledge as scientists to collaborate with our colleagues who are involved in the extremely important work of developing enhanced COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and possibly a vaccine. The HIV crisis of the 1980s and 1990s demonstrated the ability of scientists working around the world to develop an understanding of the role of a retrovirus in causing AIDS. This collaboration led to the development of successful antiviral therapies, with the result that, while there is still no vaccine for HIV, infection with the virus is no longer a death sentence.
Through similar interdisciplinary collaborations, we remain hopeful and optimistic that we can support and assist our colleagues trying to develop a vaccine active against SARS-CoV-2—indeed, some of the underlying concepts and techniques associated with cancer treatment and nanotechnology can be readily expanded to support this endeavor. As a virus can be nanotechnology and considered a naturally occurring nanoparticle, falling into the nanometer size range, we are in the advantageous position of being able to translate our knowledge and contribute to the scientific development around COVID-19 treatment, prevention and diagnosis and, in particular, to advise on safety. Conversely, research put to use in the current pandemic has potential to carry across to cancer research. For example, nanotechnology has a tremendous potential to mitigate some issues caused by COVID-19, in particular in development of advanced personal protective equipment (PPE), allowing vulnerable patients to continue receiving treatment for their cancer while the pandemic is ongoing.
It is clear that it is an extraordinary time for scientists around the world, some who are working at the forefront of trying to find a treatment for COVID-19 or vaccine for the virus causing it, some whose research has been repurposed to focus on this field, and some who have simply had to put their research on hold because of lockdowns and laboratory closures. We recognize the hardships that a lot of our authors, reviewers and editorial board members face at this time, and we will therefore take a few small steps that we hope will help in some way:
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We will be flexible on deadlines for reviews. Reviewers requiring additional time should contact the editorial office or managing editor;
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Where revisions have been requested that require additional, non-essential experiments to be performed, but where the authors cannot currently access their laboratories, we are prepared, with guidance from our reviewers, to re-evaluate whether the requested experiments are necessary for publication;
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Where revisions have been requested that require essential experiments to be performed, our teams will work with a more relaxed timeline for completion of the revisions, given the extenuating circumstances that many laboratories face;
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If research that relates to COVID-19 is submitted to the journal, and is within scope, we will endeavor to have the research reviewed rapidly, while maintaining quality standards, to ensure the research to be disseminated quickly to the community. To this end, we remind authors that Cancer Nanotechnology encourages posting of preprints of primary research manuscripts on preprint servers. Authors submitting to the journal alternatively have the opportunity to make use of Springer Nature’s free In Review service on submission, which allows direct depositing of the research on our partner platform Research Square.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic will have long-term effects on the landscape of research, potentially with greater focus on virology and preventing the next pandemic. However, we feel it is important that the scientific and medical community remain mindful that cancer is a substantial cause of disease and death throughout the world. The community around Cancer Nanotechnology must therefore continue to seek increased funding opportunities to promote cancer research and push for better cancer prevention, diagnostic, and treatment systems to make them more readily available and affordable for all people throughout all socioeconomic classes in the world. While continuing to perform our public health duties and working for the greater good, we must work together to resolutely maintain focus on championing evidence-based, patient-facing cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment approaches.
COVID-19 is a disease that has undoubtedly wrought havoc on people’s lives—likewise cancer. We owe it to patients not to forget about them, to make their lives more bearable, and to give them a chance to live another day.
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COVID-19 Dashboard (2020) Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Baltimore, Maryland, USA. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. Accessed 10 July 2020.
Cancer fact sheet (2018) World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer. Accessed 10 July 2020.
Venkatesulu BP, Chandrasekar VT, Girdhar P, Advani P, Sharma A, Elumalai T, Hsieh C, Elghazawy HI, Verma V, Krishnan S. A systematic review and meta-analysis of cancer patients affected by a novel coronavirus. medRxiv. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.27.20115303.
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Affiliations
CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Tyler, 800 East Dawson Street, Tyler, TX, 75701, USA
Steven A. Curley
The Dalton Cumbrian Facility and the School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Frederick Currell
Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Sunil Krishnan
Biomedical Research Centre, School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK
Zeljka Krpetic
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Contributions
All authors contributed equally to this manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Correspondence to Steven A. Curley.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Cite this article
Curley, S.A., Currell, F., Krishnan, S. et al. Cancer research, treatment, and COVID-19. Cancer Nano 11, 7 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12645-020-00063-7
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中文翻译：
癌症研究、治疗和 COVID-19。
COVID-19 大流行从根本上改变了我们生活的世界。引起该疾病的传染源——新型冠状病毒 SARS-CoV-2 据信首次出现于 2019 年 12 月左右，并在此后的几个月里肆虐。对全世界人类社区、卫生系统和经济造成严重破坏。截至撰写本文时，估计已有超过 1200 万人被诊断出患有 COVID-19，而大约 55 万人死于该疾病（COVID-19 Dashboard 2020）。这是一个持续而激烈的话题，非常恰当。
同样，优先事项也从癌症预防、治疗和研究转向了 COVID-19 预防、治疗和研究。正如在金融危机期间重新平衡我们的投资组合一样，我们将当前优先事项转变的形势视为一个机会，以评估和平衡我们的双重利益，即确保患者的生活质量和数量，并推动新科学与应对新冠病毒的发展-19危机负责任、坚决应对。
根据 2018 年的数据（2018 年癌症概况介绍）推断，2020 年上半年约有 900 万名患者新诊断出患有恶性疾病。在同一时间段内，全年有不少于 475 万人死于癌症。世界。目前至少有 4300 万人被诊断患有癌症，并正在接受各种治疗。显然，癌症的影响远远超过了 COVID-19，但并未引起政府、企业、媒体和社区的关注或恐慌。我们并不否认采取必要的、有时甚至是激进的行动来防止 COVID-19 等传染病传播的重要性，但我们必须记住，作为参与寻找更好的方法来预防、诊断和治疗恶性疾病的个人，我们必须牢记，目前癌症对全球健康的影响远远超过了 COVID-19。
癌症是全球第二大死亡原因，并且其发病率正在增加。随着全球人口规模的扩大，每年癌症新发病例和死亡人数持续增加。癌症可能是由遗传或环境因素引起的，也可能是由传染病引起的，例如乙型或丙型肝炎病毒或人乳头瘤病毒。此外，COVID-19 危机直接影响了癌症患者的护理。这篇社论的合著者之一 (SK) 最近提交了一篇论文，探讨了 COVID-19 对全球癌症护理的影响（Venkatesulu 等人，2020）。在这项荟萃分析中，正在接受癌症治疗并患有 COVID-19 的患者插管和死亡的可能性较高。死亡风险最高的是患有血液系统恶性肿瘤或肺癌的患者，但我们必须记住，许多接受癌症治疗的患者由于与疾病相关的营养和体能状态不佳、细胞毒性化疗、放射治疗或主要药物而受到一定程度的免疫抑制。外科手术。
作为《癌症纳米技术》的编辑，我们致力于支持和发表利用纳米技术作为诊断和治疗恶性疾病患者的工具的尖端研究。作为生物科学和纳米技术交叉领域的跨学科社区，我们还必须利用我们作为科学家的资源和知识与参与开发增强型 COVID-19 诊断、治疗方法以及可能的疫苗的极其重要工作的同事合作。20 世纪 80 年代和 90 年代的艾滋病毒危机证明了世界各地的科学家有能力了解逆转录病毒在引起艾滋病中的作用。这种合作导致了抗病毒疗法的成功开发，尽管目前还没有针对艾滋病毒的疫苗，但感染该病毒不再意味着死刑。
通过类似的跨学科合作，我们仍然充满希望和乐观地认为，我们可以支持和协助我们的同事尝试开发针对 SARS-CoV-2 的疫苗——事实上，与癌症治疗和纳米技术相关的一些基本概念和技术可以很容易地扩展支持这一努力。由于病毒可以采用纳米技术，并被认为是一种天然存在的纳米颗粒，属于纳米尺寸范围，因此我们处于有利地位，能够转化我们的知识，为围绕 COVID-19 治疗、预防和诊断的科学发展做出贡献，特别是就安全问题提出建议。相反，在当前大流行中使用的研究有可能延伸到癌症研究。例如，纳米技术在缓解 COVID-19 引起的一些问题方面具有巨大潜力，特别是在开发先进的个人防护设备 (PPE) 方面，使弱势患者能够在大流行持续期间继续接受癌症治疗。
显然，对于世界各地的科学家来说，这是一个非同寻常的时刻，其中一些科学家正站在最前沿，试图寻找针对 COVID-19 的治疗方法或针对引起该病毒的病毒的疫苗，其中一些科学家的研究已被重新调整，重点关注这一问题一些人因为封锁和实验室关闭而不得不暂停他们的研究。我们认识到许多作者、审稿人和编辑委员会成员目前面临的困难，因此我们将采取一些小步骤，希望能在某种程度上有所帮助：
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我们将灵活安排审核的截止日期。需要额外时间的审稿人应联系编辑部或总编辑；
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如果要求进行修订，需要进行额外的、非必要的实验，但作者目前无法访问他们的实验室，我们准备在审稿人的指导下，重新评估所请求的实验是否有必要发表；
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如果要求进行修订需要进行必要的实验，考虑到许多实验室面临的情有可原的情况，我们的团队将以更宽松的时间表完成修订；
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如果与 COVID-19 相关的研究被提交给期刊，并且在范围内，我们将努力快速审查该研究，同时保持质量标准，以确保该研究能够快速传播到社区。为此，我们提醒作者，癌症纳米技术鼓励在预印本服务器上发布主要研究手稿的预印本。向期刊提交文章的作者也有机会在提交时使用施普林格自然的免费审稿服务，该服务允许将研究直接存入我们的合作伙伴平台 Research Square。
毫无疑问，COVID-19 大流行将对研究领域产生长期影响，可能会更加关注病毒学和预防下一次大流行。然而，我们认为科学界和医学界必须牢记癌症是全世界疾病和死亡的主要原因。因此，癌症纳米技术社区必须继续寻求更多的资助机会，以促进癌症研究，并推动更好的癌症预防、诊断和治疗系统，使世界上所有社会经济阶层的所有人都更容易获得和负担得起这些系统。在继续履行公共卫生职责、为更大利益而努力的同时，我们必须共同努力，坚定不移地致力于倡导基于证据、面向患者的癌症预防、诊断和治疗方法。
COVID-19 是一种无疑对人们的生活造成严重破坏的疾病，癌症也是如此。我们有责任让患者不要忘记他们，让他们的生活变得更加可以忍受，并给他们新的一天的机会。
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COVID-19 仪表板 (2020) 系统科学与工程中心 (CSSE)，约翰·霍普金斯大学 (JHU)，美国马里兰州巴尔的摩。https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html。访问日期：2020 年 7 月 10 日。
癌症情况说明书（2018 年）世界卫生组织，瑞士日内瓦。https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer。访问日期：2020 年 7 月 10 日。
Venkatesulu BP、Chandrasekar VT、Girdhar P、Advani P、Sharma A、Elumalai T、Hsieh C、Elghazawy HI、Verma V、Krishnan S。对受新型冠状病毒影响的癌症患者的系统回顾和荟萃分析。medRxiv。2020。https : //doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.27.20115303。
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隶属关系
CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Tyler, 800 East Dawson Street, Tyler, TX, 75701, USA
史蒂文·A·柯利
曼彻斯特大学道尔顿坎布里亚设施和化学学院，曼彻斯特，M13 9PL，英国
弗雷德里克·科雷尔
佛罗里达州梅奥诊所放射肿瘤科，美国佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔
苏尼尔·克里希南
索尔福德大学科学、工程与环境学院生物医学研究中心，曼彻斯特，M5 4WT，英国
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引用这篇文章
Curley, SA、Currell, F.、Krishnan, S.等人。癌症研究、治疗和 COVID-19。癌症纳米 11, 7 (2020)。https://doi.org/10.1186/s12645-020-00063-7
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